The present invention relates to ordinance delivery systems for military missions and more particularly to a method and apparatus for remote fire delivery.
The military is striving to expand its capability to conduct operations in the littoral regions of the world. They desire to project power from the sea to achieve strategic objectives and to support forces operating over and on the land. An integral part of this expanding capability is the ability of sea-based forces to project offensive fire support. Naval surface fires from the sea (NSFS) enable freedom of maneuver by joint and combined ground forces and successful prosecution of the joint land battle.
Land forces are being adapted for rapid deployment in the event of crises. Therefore, they are traveling lighter, with less or without traditional land based artillery. Naval surface fires are needed to augment reduced land based artillery. At the beginning of a conflict, NSFS may be the only artillery support available. An example of this principle is the Marine Corps"" doctrine of Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS). The OMFTS doctrine stresses the use of rapid, decisive action with firepower and maneuver from the sanctuary of a sea base.
NSFS includes support provided by Navy surface gunnery, missile and electronic warfare systems in support of land units. In the wake of the cold war the Navy retired the last of its battleships, reducing naval surface fire support capability to the 5 inch/54 caliber gun with a maximum range of 13 nautical miles. Planned modifications to this weapon are expected to extend its range substantially.
Related to this concept of NSFS, the various branches of the U.S. armed forces have conceived of the idea of Networked Fire Controls such as the Naval Fire Control System(NFCS). The Navy""s Naval Fire Control System (NFCS) gathers intelligence from a variety of sensors including satellites, AWACS, other aircraft and ground observers. The resulting sensor reports are analyzed by a land attack integrated product team (IPT). The IPT identifies targets, catalogues available sensors and collection systems, and decides target locations, priorities and response times. A fire decision center then decides how best to eliminate a particular target and chooses a weapon system to address the target most cost effectively.
There are two basic classes of artillery-fired ordinance. The first is so called xe2x80x9cdumb projectiles.xe2x80x9d Conventional projectiles follow a ballistic trajectory defined by muzzle velocity and elevation and sweep of the gun barrel. Artillery used to fire these shells are large, robust and require a stable platform from which to operate to achieve accuracy. The effective range of such weapons is currently limited to about 20 miles.
The second basic class of naval rifle ordinance is competent munitions. Competent munitions are initially launched from a gun using propellant. Often, they also include rocket motors that ignite at a preset time to boost the munition""s range. Once launched, these projectiles are actively guided to their intended target. Competent munitions equipped with rocket motors require less muzzle velocity to be able to reach an intended target than a conventional weapon would require. Competent munitions also do not require a particular trajectory to achieve accuracy. The optimum initial trajectory for competent munitions is often straight up. Guidance systems may include GPS and inertial guidance.
At ranges beyond the capability of artillery, a missile must be used to destroy a target. One example of a missile is the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM). The TLAM was used in strike, interdiction, and suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) missions in Desert Storm and Bosnia. Cruise missiles, such as the TLAM have a range of several hundred miles and employ an accurate internal guidance system. Missiles are strategic weapons and, as such, are not wasted on low priority targets. Strategic guided missiles typically cost upwards of $500,000.
Both missiles and projectiles play an important role in the fire and fire support missions of the modern military. In the NSFS arena, naval ships are strategically positioned near the coast of a potential target area where land based troops will land and secure an area. There may be hostile assets within striking distance of the landing area. The naval ships provide the required fire support to suppress hostile assets and provide cover fire for the land troops. Providing fire support requires that the ships be within effective range. That means that the fire support shipping must stand off shore. Maintaining ships at a great distance is not a viable option because of the limited range of available artillery. Effective range inland is the artillery range less the distance the ship must stand offshore. Exclusive use of missiles for fire support is prohibitively expensive and the quantity of missiles is limited.
There are significant drawbacks associated with placing ships near the shore. Initially, naval vessels are exposed to hostile attack. Naval vessels are costly assets and require years to construct. More importantly, there may be several hundred crew members exposed to risk. Ships exist in limited quantity and are difficult to conceal. This tends to deprive landing forces of the element of surprise. If enough fire support ships were available they could be dispersed to several different potential landing areas to draw off potential defenders.
Secondly, existing weaponry requires the presence of a stable launch platform such as a surface ship or submarine. Moving naval vessels within effective range of the intended target is time consuming and hard to conceal, thereby limiting quick strike ability. Additionally, the visibility of ships carry political overtones and limit tactical surprise. Further, many bodies of water are not accessible to shipping due to the depth and/or size of channels.
A need exists for a naval fire support weapon system that is unobtrusive, remains concealed until needed and that can be employed without excessively exposing personnel to enemy attack. The system should provide for launching weapons without the need for a visible launch platform. It would be desirable if the system could be flexibly deployed by air, surface or submarine vehicles. The system should support land attack as part of a coordinated NSFS operation and be adaptable to control by a joint integration and targeting system such as the NFCS.
The present invention substantially solves the above problems by providing a remote surface fire support system designed to operate close to shore. The system is adapted to be deployed by a variety of means and remains concealed beneath the water""s surface until it is to be launched. The system includes a plurality of munitions containers which can be deployed by submarines, surface ships, or aircraft. The munition containers each carry a guided munition which can be controlled by a networked fire control system such as NFCS.
The munitions containers remain quiescent on the ocean floor until such time as it is desired to activate them. An activation signal is sent to the munitions container at the desired activation time which causes weights attached to the container to be released at which point the container and munition rises to the water""s surface because of its positive buoyancy. Once the container has achieved the water""s surface it will float until it receives an additional signal to launch its munitions. The system of the present invention is adaptable to a variety of different munitions including extended range guided munitions (ERGM), guided missiles, tactical missiles, and land attack standard missiles.
The system further includes a self-destruct mechanism that detonates the ordinance within the munitions container if an object should come into contact with the munitions container. This allows the remote surface fire support system to act as a mine if need be. The system may be used to attack shipping as controlled by the NFCS. In addition, the self-destruct mechanism may be activated by remote signal. Further, the self-destruct mechanism may be programmed to destroy the weapon after a certain selected period of time.
The system of the present invention is adaptable for use in a variety of bodies of water including rivers, lakes, and inland seas which are not normally accessible to naval shipping. Because the system of the present invention can be emplaced from a variety of platforms, it can be employed in different ways. The launch tubes can be quickly and discretely placed in the particular body of water. The launch tubes are adapted to be placed by submarines, ships, aircraft, and even fired from specialized gun systems.
If it is desired that a show of force be made, the system can be deployed from visible aircraft or shipping during daylight hours. In this situation it may be beneficial to include decoy munitions containers either to increase the potential difficulty of removing the containers by intermixing them with the active containers, or using only decoy containers in order to give an impression that attack is imminent providing tactical advantage at another location. Surreptitious deployment by aircraft or submarine is also an option.
The remote surface fire support system is remotely activatible using reliable, discrete, extreme low frequency communications methods as well as other methods. The system can be controlled from a remote command position and is adaptable to a networked fire control system such as the NFCS.